BU Data Sciences Center | 665 Commonwealth Avenue | BU Central

So the entire 'tower' portion of the building is also controlled access. Basically each floor has a department that has moved into it (or multiple floors) and there are signs everywhere that say "Math Department Only", etc. People will actually stop you in the hallway and ask you if you're a grad student for X department. BU has a bit of a dearth of seating/study spaces, due to there being like 30,000 people, so it is hard as ever to find little places to sit down at, like the many places on the tower floors.

BU in general, at an admin level, has a preoccupation / obsession with restricting access. Part of it is due to the space issue, but part of it is just the institutional culture... I remember when I was in school they removed all access to the front door of the College of Fine Arts (which used to be unlocked during the building's hours) requiring people to walk a extra 100 feet around the side of the building to go in. This was due to Covid, OK, fine... but then years later students had to start organizing petitions and postering to get them to open the door, which they said needed to be locked for 'security reasons'. They caved partially on hours it could be unlocked, but you get the idea. They are totally anal about this stuff. Part of it is that when you hire thousands of admin types, they need work to do.
 

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